Fred Soul & Zé Luis Nascimento – Viva Naná (L’Autre Distribution, 2024)
Naná Vasconcelos, an influential percussionist from Recife, left an exceptional mark on the jazz and world music scene before his passing in 2016. He collaborated with renowned Brazilian and American artists such as Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Don Cherry, Talking Heads, and others. Dedicatedly, he displayed his mastery across various genres.
Fred Soul and Zé Luis Nascimento, highly reputable musicians, pay homage to Vasconcelos’ unmatched percussion expertise, drawing inspiration from nature and elements, much like the late maestro did.
Exploring improvisation akin to Vasconcelos, Fred Soul and Zé Luis Nascimento create bridges between the ancestral musical traditions from Africa to Brazil and beyond. Viva Naná features emotive Afro-rooted chants, a wide range of dazzling percussion and contemporary jazz improvisation in the form of lovely piano, elegant guitar and trombone, evocative flute and other instruments.
Zé Luis Nascimento, a virtuoso percussionist from Salvador de Bahia, seamlessly combines diverse rhythmic vocabularies, developed through global tours with the Bahia Folkloric Ballet and collaborations with an array of international artists.
Meanwhile, Fred Soul, raised in a family of artists in France, adeptly navigates between European classical music and Midde Eastern percussion traditions. A versatile multi-instrumentalist, he intricately weaves together past and present, Western and Eastern influences, sharing the poetic musings of his inner world through composition and improvisation.
Musicians: Fred Soul percussion, piano, melodica, alto flute and voice; Zé Luis Nascimento percussion, berimbau and voice; Chico César vocals; Vincent Peirani accordion; Julia Sarr vocals; Anthony Jambon electric guitar; Tó Brandileone vocals; Robinson Khoury on trombone; Sylvain Barou flute; Guillaume Bongiraud cello; Chris Jennings double bass.
Author: Iliana Cabrera
